


Krypton

by coeurastronaute



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Kara isn't supergirl, Krypton, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding, and politics and worlds and just i think its cool okay, and she is a thinker and nerdier than ever, lena goes to krypton, they are friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-01-30 02:44:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12644532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coeurastronaute/pseuds/coeurastronaute
Summary: The earth is falling apart, and in a last ditch effort to save themselves, they've made a link with a sister planet in a distant galaxy. Now, a ship full of people have reached Krypton as ambassadors, to learn their technology and lifestyles in an effort so save the earth from themselves. Lena Luthor finally feels at home for the first time in a foreign place.





	1. The Introductions

It was the squint of light that finally reached her eyes that woke her, though she battled it tiredly, digging her head into her pillow. The long night mingled in her bones, making itself nice and cozy in the sheets of the bed, tangling up in her limbs and keeping her disinterested in leaving. Until she remembered.

With a start, a messy head of curls shot up, slightly dazed and confused at the quick movement, slow thoughts, and uncooperative limbs. A hand slapped her own eye as she misjudged distance and tried to rub it while the day woke well ahead of the body, so that even the normal morning song was already finished, further confusing the poor, hard working artist-in-training.

“I’m late,” she coughed to herself, still unable to move herself until her limbs caught up, and then surpassed her thoughts. “Rao no, not today. No no no nonononono.”

Books tumbled to the floor as legs knotted into themselves earning a body on the ground with a loud oomph. Kara pushed herself up, quickly shoving her papers and books together again, hoping that her newest transponder and tablet weren’t broken again as they all were put back onto the pile of her bed while she looked for pants.

She was a rarity, for her age. Done with her core schooling, and even past her testing, she was into her apprenticeship, which was very different than her friends. She got lost for hours in the Great Archives, while others trained with the Warriors or studied with the Thinkers, and whenever asked what she did, all she could say was that she looked for truth and purpose, though it was less tangible than calluses and experiments.

There were bruises though still.

“Clothes. I need clothes,” she muttered, frantically tugging at anything she could get her hands on until she was at least not completely naked. She did, however, in the process of getting dressed, knock over a pile of books, some instruments, and the astrolabe on her desk.

The clock told her she was so late it was going to be impossible to catch up, though that didn’t stop her from trying. Long legs leaped over her bed as she sprinted from one side of her room to the other, slamming into the door before opening it and continuing the marathon through the halls of her ancestral home.

It was in this way that she differed from others her age as well. While most left home, moved in with a group from their trade, or friends, Kara remained in the giant citadel that was her family home as was required by her name and lineage. It only made her trip into Argo City even more difficult though. On any other day, she loved her home. Today, when she needed to get downtown quickly, it was a prison.

No one remained at all, their dwelling silent. Her mother was gone for the day, her father, most likely left before her. It was maddening to even imagine they wouldn’t wake her. But still, Kara didn’t have time to think of her own mistakes. Instead, she tapped the button to the lift impatiently.

Her foot tapped as she slowly descended until she prepared herself a few floors before the end, ready to take off once they doors opened again.

The Loop was the quickest method of travel, and it still felt like a million years. As soon as her feet touched ground at the closest station downtown, she didn’t breathe. Like that, she was gone as soon as it opened, weaving her way through the streets toward the transportation, hoping she could make up any sort of already lost time.

Her mother was going to kill her, surely.

“I’m sorry!” she yelped, barely dodging a neighbor. “I’m late. Hello, Jran Shara. Apologies,” she bowed her head and slowed, showing the utmost respect she could in her frantic state to the bespeckled, elderly woman who worked with her mother. “Lovely day today.”

Not kill her, but definitely give her that exasperated sigh and look. But it wasn’t Kara’s fault other than it being completely her fault. She didn’t really have time for the ambassadorship program. She didn’t feel the need to spend her time with some aliens from Earth on an anthropological and political excursion. In just six lorakh she would finish her apprenticeship in the archives, and the final part of her studies was exhaustively complete. But Kara would support her mother and father because it was not just expected, but rather something that she believed in more than anything. That duty, the honor of their deeds.

“And that is the true purpose of everything we strive to accomplish,” Kara’s mother addressed the crowd formed to welcome the first ship from Earth. “We seek to welcome these ambassadors and accomplish a peace between our worlds. For while the universe is vast and dark, there is light in the form of our friendships, holding hands across the infinite expanse. We can learn so much from new cultures, and it is in this that I am overjoyed to welcome the team from Earth.”

Applause rang out in a steady wave as Kara clapped and wiggled through the crowds toward her father on the side of the stage.

“As we once descended from great explorers and minds, all of which created our beautiful home and discovered our planet, we now endeavor to become like them once again, open in our minds and hearts to the unlimited potential that rests within every species.”

“You nearly missed it,” her father smiled without taking his eyes off of his wife.

“I know. I’m sorry,” she grumbled, catching her breath. “My alarm didn’t go off, and I was up late in the Archives. Did she notice?”

As if she heard them amidst the clamor, the leader of the law council gave a small smile to her family at the edge of the crowd.

“I told her you were here somewhere,” he grinned conspiratorially before putting his arm around his daughter as she hugged his side. “Come on, let’s go. Just tell her you were preparing our home for our guest.”

“Wait, one is staying with us?” Kara furrowed at the news.

“I thought I told you…” Zor-El wondered to himself. “You’ve been so busy lately, out in the world. I’m sure I told you.”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Right, well. You won’t notice. We have plenty of room and she’ll be working with me, mostly.”

Before Kara could argue the point, she felt her feet carry her toward her mother. It wouldn’t matter anyway. It seemed oddly natural that they would host someone, with her mother spearheading this plan for expanding their network. Kara almost kicked herself for not considering it until that moment.

“Great speech, Mom,” she smiled as Alura hugged her.

“The part you caught, right?”

“Yes, that part especially.” Kara blushed slightly, offering a furtive grin.

“I was just telling our daughter about the new addition to our family,” Zor-El supplied as he kissed his wife’s temple. “It seems I forgot.”

“I know you’re busy,” her mother tried. “And I wouldn’t ask you to take time away from your studies. You won’t–”

“It’s fine, I promise,” Kara cut her off quickly. “I’m excited. This is a huge day for our people and this will be great.”

“Come on then. Let’s go take those last few steps toward progress, shall we?”

“I’m actually late for the Archives. Pal-Kann has assignments for me.”

The parents shared a look until her father nodded. Her mother squeezed her arm and smiled fondly.

“Work well. Learn everything.”

They touched foreheads and Kara smiled broadly before sprinting off.

“Do you ever remember a moment when she walked?” Alura sighed.

“Not at all.”

* * *

Never before in the history of words had overwhelmed felt so fitting and encompassing of a feeling. It took two months of travelling to meet the new sister world. It took twelve years of diplomacy to even create the trip and expand each other’s culture. But still, even with the two years spent preparing, Lena Luthor felt largely out of her element and exceedingly dazzled by everything she saw.

How could she not be blown away by the society presented? How could she not be mesmerized and intrigued by the world that stretched higher than she’d ever imagined, and more advanced than humanly possible? It was her own Christmas, but better.

And it was a miracle she even got to make the trip.

Younger by almost twenty years to the other youngest members of the exchange crew, she earned her spot by being the most brilliant mind the collective universities and powers to be could find. While there were physicists and astronomers, and engineers and doctors, she was not just the science, she was the tech wizard, the genius that her father promised and had a heavy hand in getting seat.

But it was supposed to be her brother, though as Lionel’s favorite, Lena won out over his duty to their family’s company. She saw how much it hurt him, and though she tried to offer it to him, an act that actually hurt, no matter how much she tried to convince herself that selflessness was a virtue, he respected his father’s wishes and let her keep it.

And at the moment, standing in the streets of the capital of an advanced alien planet, Lena wanted to show him so badly while at the same time, already had a thousand questions of her hosts, forgetting her brother entirety.

Slowly, the groups were formed as hosts were introduced to their exchanges. Lena waited for her’s, the noble house of El, an esteemed, ancient family with a knack for diplomacy and technology. She was grateful for the placement, excited to work with Zor-El, the head of a research group, though her father urged her to shadow Alura, the somewhat political leader of the planet.

Lena just wanted to know what fuel they used for the ships.

“Lena of the House of Luthor?”

“Yes, yes, hello,” she snapped back from marvelling at the skyline and every single thing that existed.

She was met with two of the most beautiful, smiling, angelic faces she’d ever seen, both beaming at her kindly, welcoming her. The man, tall, slender faced with a bushy black beard and warm brown eyes waited for her to catch her wits. The blonde, blue eyed woman couldn’t.

“We are so happy to hear of your safe arrival. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“It is an honor to be here with you,” Lena smiled and nodded, bowing as she was instructed per their liaison. “Zor-El, Alura.”

“Your travels were nice?”

“They were. Your city is…” she looked around again and felt as if her lungs were filled to dangerous capacity. “Its one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen.”

“We have many things to show you, but we thought today we would allow you to adjust,” the husband explained while she continued to look around, eyes wide and searching. “Your things are on the way to our home already. Perhaps a stroll and small tour. I’m sure you will want to stretch your legs after two months in a confined space.”

“I’m not keeping you from your work, am I? “

“No, no,” Alura promised, wrapping her arm around Lena’s as she began to guide her. “We have been planning this for many years. We want you to learn from us as we will learn from you, therefore we are more lenient about time when it comes to those housing guests.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’ll message our daughter to be home at a good hour,” Zor-El excused himself to the side as he messaged somehow. “And now we can begin. Welcome to Krypton, Lena of House of Luthor.”

* * *

There was never a shortage of reading material while she worked on finishing her work in the Archives. Tasked with keeping the history of their world, tasked with helping all of the guilds with their research, tasked with creating the past and helping the future, Kara was constantly behind in reading and learning.

Normally, she didn’t get back until much later. Just something about losing track of time kept her on a weird schedule. But she had obligations, and so she made it back with her arms full of more books, more assignments.

Normally, the house was quiet. From time to time, friends and even her aunt might stop by for a dinner or game night. Sometimes there were associates who visited and who brought their families. But most of the time, the House of El was quiet. Not lonely, not sullen, not scary, but rather just a happy kind of solitude.

But it wasn’t a normal day, and as Kara dropped her books on a table as she walked through their home, she didn’t have to strain her ears much to hear the laughter and talking coming from outside. It was a familiar sound that she hadn’t missed until she heard it again, one that was all memories of long nights and fun parties with good friends and family

The doors were open, the windows all smelled like the flowers out on the edge of their land, the oldest plot of land on their planet, owned by the family since the beginning of time, since the beginning of the history as they all knew it. It was the honor of their house to be known as a home to thinkers and talkers alike. Kara had a pride in their ability to converse and bring together so many unique people in its history. Tonight was no different, and perhaps one of the most important yet.

“So you use finite resources to propel all manner of transportation and infrastructure?”

“Yes.”

“But how will that affect the composition of the planet?”

“Badly.” They laughed as Kara finally snuck out to meet them. “There are large movements to use renewable resources, but convenience is paramount.”

“In all of my studies of humans, I’ve found that pragmatism is often at a loss to the selfish interests of the few,” her father waxed. “How do you combat that? Or can you?”

“I can’t say that my father isn’t one of them. Money and power often interrupt the idea of the future.”

“But you already have a grasp on such advanced theories and problems.”

“I’m trying,” she smiled politely. “Hopefully I can find a balance to make evolution a little less painful.”

“Oh, Kara! Honey, hello,” her mother greeted, the first to spot her lurking and listening. “You made it home early.”

“Wouldn’t want to miss our guest’s first night.”

She kissed her mother’s cheek and earned a smile from her father. That was the last thing she remembered doing, because then she looked at the guest and she was certain all words kind of didn’t make words any longer. Letters existed and she had a few, both her common language and the six she’d picked up throughout her studies all smashed together to create untranslatable feelings.

Her clothes were foreign, her look was… she wasn’t Kryptonian. Her eyes were this deep green, evident even in the light of the evening sky. Kara wasn’t sure she’d ever seen someone who looked like that, nor was she certain that someone made her heart skip in an instant.

“This is Lena Luthor. Just Luthor. No house,” her father explained. “I’ve already learned a lot about their social structure.”

Kara grinned at how excited he was to learn new things. She was certain that he probably bombarded her with questions. She had about a thousand to ask as well, though none came to mind in that instant.

“Kara,” she held out her hand as she’d read was custom. “It’s nice to meet you, Lena.”

“Your parents have told me a lot about you,” she smiled and Kara was a goner.

It wasn’t uncommon to see other people often. She was young, and they had parties and she saw people in a sometimes romantic way. She’d never seen anyone or looked at anyone like how she must have been looking at this alien.

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

“I was just answering a few questions. And asking a few, if I’m being honest.”

“It sounds like you two will grow bored after just a few days.”

“I don’t think I could run out of questions here,” she laughed and watched as Kara sat across from her. “I don’t know if you did this, but kids, back on Earth, they ask so many questions that it’s maddening. Why is the sky blue? Where does the garbage go? Do trees have feelings?”

“Do they?” Kara asked eagerly.

“Some trees have roots that are thousands of feet long and connect each other across large distances. I don’t know if they feel, but they must.”

“Good. I like that.”

“I feel like a child again, now that I’m here,” Lena explained. “I want to know how cars go and why the sky is this color.”

That was it. One minute, and Kara was mesmerized. She was absolutely taken with the stranger and she didn’t even realize how gone she was. But even after she finished talking, Kara stared and waited for more words, until her father cleared his throat.

“Kara is training to take over the Archives. It’s a coveted position,” Alura explained as she motioned for Lena to take a seat once again.

“Though she has the brain for the thinking guild,” her father sighed, one of the great tragedies of his rather perfect life.

For years, his daughter shadowed him, showed a knack for thinking, for science, for theory, for experimentation, and yet, when she was selected for the position, one that any parent would have been amazed to see, he felt a pang of loss. She wasn’t his any longer. Now, she belonged to their city and their past.

“The Archives? What does that mean?”

“They explained the guilds?” Kara asked, sitting back and stealing a bit of food from the plates between them. She watched Lena nod. “My mother is a Mediator, devoted to law. My father is a thinker, devoted to the sciences. I am an Archivist, devoted to all.”

“All of the guilds?” Lena furrowed.

“There are twelve of us. One in each of the cities. It’s… it’s complicated. But I can show you one day. For now, it just means that I study and learn and collect.”

“I’d love that.”

“It appears I’m outnumbered even more,” her father grinned and drank his wine.

From across the porch, Kara smiled at him before making the fatal mistake of looking back at Lena of house Luthor, and she was gone once again. She’d read thousands of books. She’d spent hours observing the clouds and calculating the stars and documenting their stories, and yet she’d never, in all of her time, in all of history, in all of the shared consciousness of her race, noted anything like the feeling she got when she looked at the stranger.

She would consult the Archives in the morning, she decided as she stole another treat though her mother gave her a look for not sharing well enough. She would look in the compiled histories for what it could mean to be intrigued and absolutely mesmerized by someone who hadn’t said twenty words.

* * *

By far, the biggest surprise of her arrival to Krypton had not been the technology or the beauty of it, nor was it the kindness of the people or the graciousness to which they enacted to welcome their guests. The biggest surprise was how many times Kara could stumble and stutter and wave her hands while she spoke passionately about things, while everyone else seemed so effortlessly graceful and precise. She somehow managed to find the one Kryptonian that was so very human it was almost endearing.

As the evening set in, as the wine was shared and the delicious treats were passed, as topics were debated and discussed, Lena found herself often looking toward the girl who had a shy grin and an air of almost whimsy about her ideas. She was everything Lena never imagined one person to hold within themselves, and that was just after a few hours. Hair wild, skin of her shoulders on display, the delicate bones of her collar precise and even, eyes deep brown, chin cleft and regal, she was perfection, plain and simple.

“It is getting late,” Zor-El realized as he saw Lena attempt to stifle another yawn. She smiled politely though through it. “We have been rude to keep you up after your trip.”

“I’m sure this is a lot to process,” Alura agreed. “And we have tried to solve the entire galaxy’s problems in one night and two bottles of wine.”

“A noble effort,” Lena chuckled.

“Kara, could you show Lena to her rooms?” the mother asked, earning a little jump. “We’ll clean up.”

“Oh, yes. Yeah, I could do that,” she nodded and stood quickly.

Lena couldn’t help but smile. Something about Kara was just so… good. She felt like sunshine. She reminded her of those little puppies in the pet store window that her father would never let her have despite pleading with him for months leading up to her birthday and Christmas. Kara was the perfect little cocker spaniel with her paws pressed against the window, and the thought made Lena warm.

But she blamed it on the wine and the long day and the inability of her brain to process all that had happened.

“Thank you for having me,” Lena offered to the parents. “I know that this is an act of faith between our worlds, and I am deeply humbled and honored to be here.”

“It’s our pleasure to have you,” the father bowed slightly.

“You are so full of hope,” Alura smiled and held Lena’s shoulders, a move that scared her slightly, though she did not show it. “Go rest. Tomorrow your universe gets much larger.”

With the nods and thanks, Lena waited as the family spoke in their language before she finally followed her guide from the back and into the house that she barely got to see before being whisked outside to be swept off of her feet by the hospitality presented to her.

Though she wanted to take it all in, she didn’t have the brainpower to learn anything else, and she certainly was devoting more than she’d admit to thinking of something to say to the girl who appeared and made her feel at ease.

Instead of words, she just followed dumbly.

A few steps ahead of her, Kara racked her brain for some kind of combination of words that would sound clever and interesting, though she came up with absolutely nothing, and so she gave up in favor of just any words to fill the quiet.

“Our home is the oldest on the planet. It started smaller, but grew and was remodeled after the third war,” she explained as the ascended a staircase. “My parents usually host guests of honor for that reason. And all of our family are welcome here at anytime. Not that you’re not a guest of honor. I mean. You are. Usually meant we have in the past.”

“I get it,” Lena promised. “This place is beautiful.”

“I’ll make sure to give you a proper tour in the daylight. We have you in the second tower. It will have everything you need and the view in the morning is beautiful. You can see the city twinkling as the sun rises.”

“It sounds spectacular.”

“If you do need anything,” she paused. “I’m not far. In fact. This is, uh, my room,” Kara opened the door and remembered the state she left it in after her sprint of the morning. “Nothing interesting in there.”

“Could I look, still?”

“Oh, yeah, um, sure.”

Idiot, Kara berated herself. She wasn’t sure why she agreed, except she did and it was too late.

Kara stood in the door and watched Lena take tentative steps forward before she stopped and simply started to look. The inhabitant couldn’t remember the last time she truly scrutinized her own room, and now it felt oddly embarrassing.

The bed was unmade. The windows were wide open, allowing the chill of the night to creep in through the breeze that seemed perpetual so far from the city. The shelves were full of trinkets while the floor was stacked with books. The large computer desk in the corner glowed only slightly, but still made itself known. Kara watched Lena pick up a book from the ground and trace her hand along the page before picking up another.

“It’s amazing how similar some things are to us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your room looks like my workshop,” Lena turned and smiled. “Could you tell me why you have paper books and why one of them is a poetry anthology?”

“The Archives houses all knowledge. It is an old artform, but it is our job to guard all knowledge accumulated, even those that have been forgotten,” Kara shrugged, hurriedly grabbing both books. “And I thought it was important to learn of your culture. These are done in a way I’m not familiar. No one knows them and can decipher them. They don’t make sense, but they feel nice.”

“That’s exactly what a poem is.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s a feeling. Metaphor. Symbolism. I don’t read much of them. Barely have time to read research let alone for pleasure,” she smiled and finally looked back at Kara from the books that’d been taken. “I’m sure it’s like your fiction or stories.”

“I will research those tomorrow,” Kara decided, gazing down at the words in her hand as she felt heavy under Lena’s glance. “Perhaps you can help me?”

“I don’t know how good I’d be at it. I’m more of a science person.”

“You have a different guild who could help me?”

“No. Well, kind of. But… Can we try to have this conversation again in the morning?” she chuckled. “I should think of a better way to explain it all.”

“You’re doing fine,” Kara pressed eagerly, wanting more information.

“Sometimes we refer to how people think by their chosen profession. So when I said I might not be good at it, I just meant my brain thinks a certain way that might not be good at poems.”

“Can’t you do both?”

“I suppose I can, we just don’t. Or rather, I don’t.”

“One of my favorite writers of stories here is a Laborer. He does both.”

“Yes, we can do both. I just meant me, personally.”

“You are a science brain?” Kara furrowed. “Perhaps you can just read it in a different way?”

“I’ll try,” Lena promised with a deep breath. “I hope every conversation doesn’t feel this hard. My brain might explode.”

“Oh Rao! Does that happen often?”

“No,” she shook her head and chuckled to herself. “Not often.”

From the door, Kara nodded deeply before tossing the books onto her bed with a renewed interest in one of them. She scratched her neck and shifted her weight awkwardly.

“Should I show you your room?” she tried. “It’s not far. I just wanted you to not feel far.”

“Yes, please.”

“Just around the corner,” Kara promised, leading the way once again. “If you need anything, please find me. I’ll do whatever I can for you, Lena.”

“Thank you.”

“This is you,” she paused and opened the door down another hall. “I won’t distract you any longer.”

“They weren’t bad distractions.”

“Tomorrow, I make no promises.”

Both grinned at each other and stayed there longer than normal, longer than cordial, until it grew awkward with the realization that so much time had passed.

“Goodnight, Kara. Thank you.”

“Goodnight, Lena.”

For a full minute once the door was closed, Lena stood in the middle of her new home for the next year, and she felt dizzy with the idea that she was going to one day have to leave.


	2. Chapter 2

The view from the second tower was astounding, to say the absolute least. The room itself was wonderful, tailored to the guest with fresh flowers of an unknown variety and gazing out onto the unfamiliar landscape that was host to a severe set of mountains in one direction and the hints of the city in another. The sky, in its lavender tint, was impossible to decipher as any time of day. While it was the three moons and four other planets that really defined the expansive sky.

Out from the high window atop the guest tower, the expansive grounds of the El estate stretched as far as the eye could see. Gardens with flowers and looping trees, plants that were different and a whole new shape were blooming. All new colors and combinations swirled together as the light of the sun cast an orange hue for the morning. By midday it would be lavender. By evening, a lush kind of purple. A whole new world existed, right there, outside of the window, ready to be discovered and interpreted and documented.

From her new bed, Lena woke with a momentary confusion before the memory of travel and falling asleep in the noble, ancestral house of El. She inhaled a deep breath of an unplaceable smell that was sweet and warm and pervading her sheets, and she looked through the large windows at all that her adventure would hold.

In all of her life of privilege, she’d come to know spectacular views. There was the penthouse she called home for most of her life that looked out on Metropolis. There was the bedroom of the home she grew up in with her own grounds and the rolling hills. There were countless hotels in countless cities with bright lights and beautiful scenery. This though. This was new and better than it all.

Her watch, which rested comfortably on the nightstand, taken off at some point though she couldn’t remember in the tired haze, told her she’d been asleep for nearly seven hours, which was impressive for her. Her body could have used a few more, but her brain decided she was up and that she was too excited to miss another moment. Sleep was gone from her.

Any other day, any other time in her life, and perhaps leaving the large bed, with the soft sheets that were somehow a cross between silk and cotton, would have been impossible, but Lena was ready to save the world, and she was ready to see everything that Krypton, the World of the Future, had to offer.

As she showered, stretched, and yawned, she thought about how she and her brother would contemplate what Krypton would be like when they read about its discovery and subsequent connection to Earth. They went on wonderful adventures where they confronted every type of obstacle imaginable and conquered the unfamiliar world. For months, they awaited pictures and content from the space agencies regarding a new race of people and their way of life to enrich their games and perhaps make the backyard a bit more accurate.

Nothing prepared her for it though.

And nothing prepared her for–

“Oh, hi, hello, sorry.”

“Kara?” Lena jumped as she opened her bedroom door and prepared to brave the large home in hopes of finding some sort of idea of what her day would entail.

Arms full of books, the host juggled one and smiled awkwardly as she regained it.

“I was just about to knock,” she promised before pushing up the circular glasses that were a new, and not unwelcomed addition, for some unknown reason. “And see if you wanted to maybe help me with some of my Earth studies. We’ve been granted access to many archives, and I’ve worked for months on it. My thesis work, if that’s a good comparison. I know it’s not exciting, but–”

“Will I get to see these Archives that you work at?”

“Oh yes, of course,” Kara nodded eagerly. “And I’ll show you so much of our things. My father had to go to work early for some special meeting, so I thought you might like to see other things beyond the science. Though I promise much of that too. He told me to apologize for leaving. We didn’t think you’d be up so early.”

With a gracious smile, Lena took a few of the volumes from her guide’s hands and agreed to wherever that was going to take her.

“I understand. I want you to all be normal as possible. We can have food first, right?”

“We can grab something from the kitchen,” she promised, starting to lead the way. “I stayed up all night reading over some of the poems again. And some science fiction, which seems like an oxymoron.”

“Did you sleep at all?”

“A few hours, maybe.”

“You must have more interesting things to research than our works.”

“We have information collected across time and space, but your world is close, and we want to understand each other.”

“I believe our objectives are scientific in nature,” Lena reminded Kara as they moved through a hallway she might have recognized, though she wasn’t sure. She would ask for a map, she decided. Or relegate herself to being lost.

“You want to save your planet, and I want to see what we’re saving.”

“Sometimes, I’m not even sure.”

“Not terribly homesick?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever suffered from that in my entire life.”

“I wonder if I would,” Kara pondered as she finally set her stack on the table in the dining room. It was a rhetorical thought, but one she still found the need to answer, at least for herself. With a nod she confirmed her feelings.

“Maybe you’ll have to visit to find out.”

“Now that’s an idea.”

Lena was never sure she’d seen someone so happy at just an idea. Dreamy and far away with the thought of it, Kara searched her mind for a chance at such a trip and if she would actually want it. But by the time she met her guest’s eyes, she was utterly convinced.

* * *

For weeks, Lena spent all of her time either exploring or doing research, savoring and extracting every piece of knowledge she could from her hosts, hoping to glean anything to save her planet from impending, self-inflicted doom. There was never a chance to be homesick, if that were even a feeling she could have. There was never a moment where she wished she was anywhere else. It was as if Krypton was tailor-made for her.

Lena was at home in the house that was so big it felt like its own city. She was comfortable enough to sit on the roof and patio and have drinks with extended family. She was also very happy in the large observatory, and down in the basement with all of the computers and prototypes. There were very few places that she visited that she wasn’t immensely happy the second she walked through the doors.

She felt, for the first time in her life, as if she weren’t the smartest kid in class. She spent hours pouring over books and becoming absolutely entranced with the new methods of thinking and scientific discoveries. Every day provided more for her so that she fell into bed, exhausted and eager for more. A craving existed to know more, and yet Lena was in no rush. She wanted to be very still and she wanted to freeze time.

The El’s were a good family to be paired with. She loved Zor-El’s thirst for knowledge, and she loved debating and talking with Alura. Lena felt herself feeling oddly at home in the large home and the status that came with the old, noble house. They were different than being a Luthor back on Earth. There was a reverence and an awe that was said about them. They were good and noble people, and it came naturally that they were valued members of the city. That taught Lena more than she could ever imagine.

She learned about the science, but she also learned about the culture, and more than that, she acted as an ambassador, which meant spending a lot of time answering Kara’s questions and diffusing their similarities and ways of thinking. Which was a nice way to spend her time, to have someone as an anchor after being showed off and bombarded as a scientist from Earth. She was a spectacle in a new way, and it was exhilarating.

But Kara was different. Kara was… Kara was nice and gentle and kind and genuinely interested in everything. She was weird, but tolerably weird, like her excentricities were humble and good. Alura was quiet and pensive and passionate, and Kara got some of that. To hear her talk about history and science was like watching a ballet. Her father was funny and smart and kind, and Kara was empathically similar. Funny in a different way though, almost innocent but not naive. Lena enjoyed all of her dichotomies. She was not normal, and she was unlike anyone that Lena had ever met. She was a mystery and constant surprise.

For weeks, Lena simply got acclimated in a way that felt almost impossible. She felt at home, and she felt as if she fit in without the stigma of her name. It was new to her, to exist as herself. More than anything, she got to spend time in a lab again, without worrying about board meetings or following stupid financial statements.

“Hi, Lena,” a voice tugged her away from staring at a board with lots of figures and calculations on it.

The science wing downtown was a lush, vibrant, crisp area that kept free of clutter and kept itself full of dreamers and thinkers. It was split among many disciplines who all mingled together, who shared their thoughts. It wasn’t home to many visitors though.

“Kara, hi, are you looking for your father?”

“What? No. I– No, that’s not why I’m here. I wanted to see you,” she smiled quickly and walked around the desk slightly.

Lena stood a bit and watched the girl meander around, slightly out of place despite spending much of her childhood in those very halls. She picked up a tool from the desk and fidgeted with it.

“You came all the way over to see me?” Lena furrowed and hid a smile.

“A few friends from my year are having a party for the meteor shower at the old observatory. We have to leave early to get out there, so I thought I’d see if you could sneak away. If you were interested.”

There was something about the way she asked was endearing. She fidgeted with the tool and put it back as she finished talking. They were friends. They lived together and were friends, so the offer to tag along shouldn’t have been weird, but it was.

“Are you kidding? That sounds amazing. I’d love to go. Thank you.”

“You’re not too busy?”

Deep brown eyes searched Lena’s face. Her hair was wild and she had a tender kind of smile that was overwhelmingly sweet. Kara was a walking cavity.

“I think my research can hold considering I’m years behind everyone already,” she decided as she looked over the board of numbers and notes. “Are you sure you want to drag me along?”

“You like stars and space, right?”

“I do.”

“You don’t mind camping and meeting new people, right?”

“Well, see…” Lena hesitated on that note.

“Perfect,” Kara ignored her. “It’s settled.”

* * *

The old observatory was on the far east side of the city, tucked away from the waters, away from the hustle of the city. There were satellite farms there, and outposts and research labs and smaller communities mingling with the remnants of older parts of Kryptonian civilization. Out past the hills that turned into mountains, there were ruins and towns and the other cities that created the planet.

It was Lena’s first trip outside of the city. Some her her fellow earth-dwellers were stationed with families all over the planet, but she was lucky enough to have a playground of the grounds at the House of El and the Universal Lab. But outside of the city, she fell in love with things a little more, if she weren’t enough already.

Kara’s friends were polite and gracious, asking a million questions and just as eager to share everything they knew with the stranger. Perhaps she misjudged it, but Kara didn’t think Lena would be as nervous as she was, and so she stuck by, always in eyesight, always ready to swoop in as best she could without needing to be asked.

They spread out food on an old desk at the observatory roof. The city was a dull glow behind the horizon while nothing but fields spread out as far as the eye could see below their ridge of hills. The night waned and they all had lights to illuminate the night. It was a night that Lena imagined could happen on earth in some way, though probably not with her involved. This part was new.

“Do you like the Archives?” Lena asked as they sat on the edge of the roof and waited for the spark.

“I do. It’s an honor to dedicate my life to wisdom as opposed to knowledge.”

“You seem very wise.”

“I’m not,” Kara chuckled. “I am just so curious about everything. When I was a kid, I thought my brain was broken because I could understand everything my parents taught me, I just got the answers in different ways. Do you know what it feels like to have a different brain?”

Perhaps it was just the thought and confession, or perhaps its was the earnest way in which Kara said it, but Lena thought about the magnitude of those words and found herself even more curious about how Kara’s mind worked.

“Yeah, I think I do,” she nodded.

“Then you must know the relief I felt when people stopped saying I was off or that I was going to shame my family name.”

“I can’t imagine that feeling at all,” Lena shook her head. “My family has similar things to say about me, only they believe I will still ruin them.”

“But you’re quite proficient in the sciences. And that’s coming from a Kryptonian,” Kara offered, despite it being shrugged off.

“My family will never be happy. But I’ve decided that I want to be happy. Who wants to be miserable forever?”

“Not me.”

“Me either.”

They shared a grin and returned to the safer subject; the sky was dark and full of stars and moons. The faint outline of it all throbbed. Lena leaned her chin on the railing that they sat behind.

“Your family sounds complex,” Kara finally tried. “It’s rude to ask, but I’m infinitely curious about you, Lena Luthor.”

“Curious about me, or people from earth? Because I doubt my family is a good representation of that.”

“You. Definitely you. I want to know what made you, you.”

“Tall order.”

“I envy you. You get to come here and be whoever you want,” Kara sighed. “We are here, but you get to shed away yourself. That’s a gift. I want to know the things you wouldn’t want me to know.”

To her credit, Lena shook her head and closed her eyes before leaning back, her chin still pointed upwards as she wanted to find and memorize every star in the sky. She wanted to fabricate her own constellations and rewrite their histories like a god or gods or both.

“I won’t be new and shiny if you get to know me.”

“You’re far more interesting than the other earthlings I’ve met,” Kara shrugged this time. “If you haven’t noticed, I actually prefer old, dusty, well-worn things.”

The argument was good, and actually made Lena consider how to move on. She couldn’t say no to Kara though. She just didn’t have it in her, and for the first time, she felt oddly honest, as if being honest was acceptable.

“Children are protected here,” Lena began with a simple observation. “Right? Children are loved and protected. Even those without parents are upheld and supported by everyone around them.”

“True. We value childhood and children without belittling them. How else are they supposed to grow up?”

“What would happen if a child was hit or found to be sad or someone was mean to a child?”

“It’s not the most serious crime, but it is a crime,” Kara furrowed as she thought it over. “It’s a social crime. Those things don’t happen. I can’t remember the last time it came up.”

“My parents had a son. They really didn’t want a daughter.”

“Oh.”

“Sometimes you just grow up anyway, despite it all,” Lena sighed, still searching stars. “I’m not that interesting Kara. I just have more things that I keep to myself than most.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m happy with who you’ve become. You’re one of the few people I actually enjoy talking with.”

“Now that’s an honor,” she teased. “To hold your attention. I’ve seen how your head works. It’s so scattered and you’re all over the place.”

“You keep up fine.”

Despite herself, Lena turned to watch Kara watching the sky. She shook her head before returning the the feature presentation in the form of a white streak across the sky to the south. It was followed quickly by another one.

“Thanks for inviting me, Kara.”

“What are friends for, if not to abduct you and force you to interact with strangers for an extended period of time?”

“No wonder I try to avoid having any.”

Kara laughed, snorting slightly at the description. Both watched the shower and enjoyed the quiet of the moment.

* * *

The first month went by in a blink. The second moved on at a breakneck speed. But it was a great kind of time, some where Lena learned so much her head was going to explode, while at the same time, was shown so much of Krypton, that she thought she would never learn everything there was. She spent days with Jor-El, evenings compiling notes, and nights being dragged around by Kara. It left little time for anything else.

But still, she found time. Or rather, she made time, when Kara came around to distract her from everything.

“So you never told me the history of your house,” Lena said as she ate the street food that Kara ordered for her after dragging her into the sunshine and for a quick lunch through the park. “You’ve told me the history of everything else.”

“I’m afraid to make you too bored with all of my talk,” Kara blushed. “And I like thinking through your new inventions.”

“You like telling me stories.”

“I do,” she confessed, pausing to lean against the railing that overlooked the promenade field.

“But you let me distract you for the entire lunch with stupid complaints about my generators and capacitors.”

“I also like listening to you talk. It’s a problem.”

“It is.”

Both ate and watched the display on the field as groups began to practice and fight and train themselves in the old style, mostly ceremonial, but oddly beautiful to watch. The suns were shining and the world was awake and eager. Lena enjoyed being in the lab, but she also enjoyed being Kara’s prisoner, more than she should admit.

They were friends now. The meteor shower and living together aside, they sought each other out and spent time exploring. They did friendly things.

“Did you ever train?” Lena asked, rapt with attention on the synchronized movements of the warriors.

“Just barely,” her guide shook her head, eager to move along. “I am not one for violence.”

“It’s not violence to know how to defend yourself.”

“You… you like that kind of thing?”

“Defending myself?” she chuckled. “Yeah, I’m fairly fond of it.”

“No, I mean… training?” Kara asked, clearing her throat and looking toward Lena out of the corner of her eyes. “You spend time doing that?”

She didn’t suspect it at all, and still, she couldn’t picture the pale princess of one of the richest families on her planet, the doted upon daughter of a rich and powerful man, the scientist with brilliant theories who was able to almost keep up with her father, doing anything sweaty or that involved punching anything.

“I grew up taking martial arts classes. It was a way to clear my head, do something physical. When I got older, especially during college, doing things like boxing and krav maga were moments to clear my head, to work out any frustration.”

“Oh.”

“And I can’t say it hasn’t made me feel good to feel like I can defend myself.”

“Did you ever have to defend yourself?” Kara asked, somewhat afraid of the answer.

“I punched a guy once at a bar, but that was about it. The practice and the hours spent training weren’t for that though. They just gave me the confidence to do it. It cleared my mind to use my body,” Lena explained. “I find that doing that helps the ideas follow. I have my best thoughts either when I’m punching something or in the shower.”

“I guess I never thought of it as anything more than a necessity to know that.”

“It can be useful.”

“I’ve never wanted to hit anything,” Kara realized as she took another bite of food. “Not that I can recall, at least.”

“I don’t doubt it. What are they practicing for?”

“Those forms are old. Now, we have weapons and ships and tools that make hand to hand combat almost obsolete. The forms are to remind us that force is violent and should be avoided. It’s easy to pull a trigger. So they keep it alive, probably for the same reasons you enjoy it.”

“I like it. It’s like a dance.”

For the first time in her life, Kara watched the soldier training, and she saw it through the lens of the stranger, and she, too, found a new appreciation for the movements and the people and the tradition.

“It is,” Kara finally agreed.

“Could I learn?”

“If you want, I don’t see why not.”

“Good,” Lena smiled to herself.

All the while, Kara gulped and tried not to think of it.

* * *

It was not an irregular occurrence for Kara to disappear into the Archives. She was given a free pass by most as the Archivist for Argo City, or at least the intern, to be busy accumulating knowledge and organizing their histories. Her parents knew it. Her friends understood it. And yet, with the arrival of the ambassadors from Earth, they saw more of her than ever.

The new normal was to see Kara trying new things with a certain girl from earth, at all hours. They went hiking through the Glass Mountains, and they went swimming through the crystal waters along the hills. They went to shows and had fun at family gatherings, this kind of bond that was apparent to everyone, but unique in its ability to get Kara out of her normal schedule.

But by the afternoon, Kara realized something strange about her day in that she hadn’t heard from her earthly friend. Usually, at some point, one of them came up with an excuse to escape the lab or the stacks, and they would go on a grand adventure in the form of the park or a trip somewhere new.

At first, it was a dull thought in the back of her head, but after a few more hours, it turned into a distracting buzzing between her ears. Soon enough, it was loud and bothersome enough to make Kara pack up her bag and depart the reading and research about something she just barely remembered a hint of, in hopes of helping her sister planet.

So she packed up and she moved to leave for the day, although she wasn’t certain why, just that her body moved and her brain was busy thinking about silly things.

Already a few months in, and Kara was certain she hadn’t had a friend like Lena. She hadn’t known someone who was so quiet and distracted with the multitude of existing. She wore the burden of breathing and other’s upon her so that it weighed her down, and still, she could laugh. Lena had a nice laugh, and she was smart. Kara liked how her brain worked. She liked how her body worked too. But that was a new problem she experienced as Lena began doing the forms from the Warriors in the garden, her muscles moving purposefully and swiftly. It was a spectacle.

But Kara didn’t make it far in her packing before she felt the air shirt around her in an almost imperceivable way that she was growing to feel, and just like that she knew.

“Oh, Kara, hi,” Lena murmured. “Are you leaving?”

“I was just… uh, yes. Done for the day. In need of some fresh air.”

“I didn’t mean to– I was– I should get back to the lab, but I just couldn’t make myself.”

There was something different about her, and as unfamiliar as Kara was with classifying emotions, she knew that the default Lena setting was altered, and thus she would have to fix it. That was the facts. She had to fix whatever was wrong and get her back to normal.

“I’m sure you don’t have to get back,” she softened. “I’ve been thinking of places to show you. I have a new one if you’d like.”

“Take me anywhere, please,” Lena sighed and offered a weak, but encouraging, smile.

The invitation was eagerly accepted. Kara shouldered her bag and led Lena out to the front and into the busy streets. The rest of the city was out and about, people mingling and existing in the streets while the suns’ light slipped through the canopy of skinny limbed trees that acted as a patchwork of a roof through the sidewalks.

It only took a few months and Kara’s insistence, but Lena donned the native clothes. Kara blushed and picked the color, a light green and tan. She suggested it and Lena picked it out of all of the options. She still didn’t look like a Kryptonian, and there was no chance of losing her despite the density of bodies, but Kara held Lena’s hand as she led the way.

The park at the center of the city was expansive. At least triple the size of Central Park, and at least the most unique and beautiful park that Lena had ever seen. It took a long while for them to make it to where they were going, but Kara nudged her head and helped Lena up onto the branch of a tree at one edge. Deep below them was the canyon and beyond that was the water of the sea.

“I found this place yesterday, and I thought you might like it,” Kara offered. “The view is pretty good.”

Two planets were in the sky, slipping through the view just beyond the scant clouds. The canyon was verdant and alive, unexplored and possible. The tree was the large kind that captured Lena’s attention. There were a few examples of them throughout the El estate. The branches dipped below the ground and sprung up like waves. The leaves were the size of umbrellas, and it grew higher than a house,on a good day. It was a large, solid monstrosity, and when she saw them, they seemed to become part of the city so that the city became a breathing, living entity.

When she first asked about them, Kara told Lena about how these trees were vital to the planet, that they were just big, ancient things that they built around. Once, someone even lived in one, comfortably. They were supposed to be gifts from Rao. They were sacred spirits that were protected as such. There was something romantic about them in the universe.

“This is a nice view,” Lena finally agreed after a few moments of quiet.

Each took in the view. Kara smiled to herself and leaned back on the large branch while Lena crossed her arms and looked at the expanse.

“It’s nice not to think sometimes,” Kara ventured. “Sometimes I forget that moments like this can exist, when we don’t have to do anything at all except breathe, and the universe won’t mind. It’s actually fairly indifferent about it.”

“I like how your brain works.”

“Oh. You do? Okay. Yeah,” she stumbled a bit and flustered herself.

“You just sound hopeful. You also make sense to me.”

“That would be a first.”

“I’ve been here for four months already, in Earth time, which means I’ve been away from home for six,” Lena nodded to herself. “And it’s nice to have something that makes sense when I see the sky with planets in it and purple-colored clouds.”

“You’re getting used to it?”

“I am,” she agreed. “I like being here.”

“”It feels like you’ve been here for longer. I can’t figure it out.”

“Every day feels very new to me.”

Lena leaned against the tree and held her own body. Her mind worked a thousand different ways, because that was all she could do.

“What’s wrong?” Kara tried.

“Nothing.”

“Lena…”

“I spoke with my father. A call on the ship. Whenever I see him, I just remember that I’m not… that I can’t… I don’t want to be indebted to him, if that makes sense.”

“It does.”

“I don’t think there’s ever been a minute when I’ve just been myself, until I got here.”

“You spoke with your father and got upset,” Kara recapped the things she missed in the very laconic girl from earth. “What did he say?”

“He told me to do what I had to do for the family,” Lena recited, afraid to look at Kara. “They want information and technology and not for good, scientific reasons, either. I’m sick of holding it in, and I can’t lie anymore. I don’t even care what happens to me.”

“Why would anything happen to you?”

“Because my family wants to steal your secrets.”

“Do you think we’d invite a new race of people and just divulge all of our secrets?” the Kryptonian chuckled and shook her head a she adjusted in the branch. “We’ve given you a fraction of what we know. We teach you what we want you to learn.”

“So I’m not a spy?”

“Not if you don’t want to be.”

“I don’t,” she decided quickly. “I don’t want to go home, either.”

“That’s still a few months away,” Kara tried to soothe, though the thought felt violent, even to her. She was suddenly facing the thought of Lena leaving, which subverted any real worry about the would be interplanetary double agent.

“Yeah.”

“Or you could just stay.”

Lena just shook her head, as if she hadn’t already considered such a simple solution. She sighed and rested her cheek on Kara’s shoulder.

“If only.”


	3. Chapter 3

The house was always busy, and there was always something to do, somewhere to go, someone else to meet. By the third month, Lena kept imagining that she already met every single citizen. And then there was another dinner or lunch or person who specialized in something else, people were always visiting from the other cities, eager to meet the guests and share what they could. But Lena was accustomed to such things. She was used to high society and meetings.

To some degree, she really tried to stay away from learning too much, so by the time she made it to the next scheduled phone call with her father, she had a great bit of information about a much more efficient solar battery, and nothing about weaponry. That was what she focused on the most, the helping.

Things got worse. Things got a lot worse on Earth.

Between the meetings, Lena worked vigilantly to fix her home. It left little time for adventures with the girl with glasses who was always tripping over something. That was perhaps the most heartbreaking part. But Lena steeled herself and worked around it all.

The party was the largest of the year, and despite herself and her work, preparations for it happened around Lena and her limited understanding of Rao and the new year. It meant the Kara was busier than normal, and it meant that she worked even harder to finish her studies before the year ended.

There was a moment in the hall, where Kara dropped a large pile of books after nearly bumping into Lena. Both laughed and Kara must have been blushing, though she hid behind her glasses and adjusted them. Clumsy as ever, she apologized as Lena helped and accepted the joke of being busy. She didn’t have it in her to say that she liked Lena in their clothes. Just like Lena didn’t have the words to say that Kara’s eyes felt very warm. And so she just thanked her for the flowers that were left in her room and disappeared.

They were friends. They were friends who stayed up all night talking in the back garden. They were friends that helped each other understand. They were friends in the sense of the word that neither quite understood what it meant exactly. But they were.

Both were very busy in their lives, but both appeared at the party, as summoned by the matriarch of the home.

Kara had a good three or four inches on Lena when she first arrived and wore heels. As she grew used to not wearing them, Kara suddenly grew a few more inches. Lena didn’t mind it that much, for the first time in her life. Being short was a welcomed feeling if it meant being eclipsed in a hug that came with that Kara smell that reminded Lena of summer days at the park, all sunshine and honeysuckles.

It took a little bit of angling and a lot of luck, but Lena excused herself from her group and finally earned one of those hugs.

“It feels like it’s been days since I’ve seen you,” she sighed as she melted into her friend, earning a chuckle that she felt against her own chest.

Kara had trouble looking at Lena. Someone shouldn’t be able to make a color more beautiful. But they were friends and she had mixed-information regarding relationships on Earth. They were far too complex and terrifying for her to comprehend. On Krypton, things were simple. Friends and family. The matches came later. Kara couldn’t remember getting flutters when she saw her other friends.

And Lena was her friend.

“I saw you… Well, I guess it was a few days ago.”

“You have officially become an Archivist. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, growing a little nervous.

“Now you contain all knowledge, right?”

“Now I continue the ridiculous pursuit of trying to understand,” Kara corrected, earning a laugh of her own. For a moment, she wondered if Lena craved her’s as much as she craved Lena’s.

Both snuck away, keeping to themselves as a way of self-protection. If they kept talking and moving, they couldn’t be bogged down. Lena perfected that method growing up, and like a pro, Kara took to it easily.

“So today we are celebrating the finishing of another cycle by symbolically burning a piece of art that someone spent an entire year creating?” Lena furrowed as they meandered onto a large balcony that overlooked the city.

Similar parties were held throughout the city with specks of lights emerging everywhere, through the darkness.

“We are celebrating all of the cycles of the world,” Kara shook her head. “Today they start anew.”

“I don’t understand it.”

“No one told you the story of Nightwing and Flamebird?”

“I thought this was for Rao?” Lena squinted. “I’ve been really busy with new calculations for the earth model. My cultural studies have fallen behind.”

Kara smiled to herself and took a seat on a bench while the party happened. Laughter collided with music and people moved throughout, celebrating and catching up. There was food, new foods that Lena never imagined. There were new people, family from distant cities that came to visit. For a moment, Lena felt at home with the idea of it all.

“This is one of my favorite stories,” Kara explained.

“Well, great keeper of the Archives, will you tell me?”

With a look like that, Kara was hopelessly outmatched. She cleared her throat and nodded, anxiously trying to remember where to start.

“Early on, in the beginning of the beginning, Flamebird existed with the sole job of destroying that which was created, so that nothing remained stagnant for too long. It was the representation of healthy change,” Kara explained. “Rao deemed it to be so, that all things end and grow back stronger.”

“I’ve never heard destruction referred to so poetically.”

“This isn’t a poem.”

“But it is still poetic,” Lena clarified, realizing she was bringing up an already troublesome topic. “Continue, please.”

“Just as Flamebird exists, so, too did Vohc, the builder. He was entrusted with the task of constantly building.”

“So they were enemies?”

“They were lovers,” Kara corrected. “Vohc loved Flamebird. He loved that what she destroyed allowed for him to be more creative, to have the chance to build again.”

“Wow,” Lena smiled. “That’s oddly romantic.”

“But as he grew to love her, he created something to show his affection. Even Flamebird loved it, but she was meant to destroy and restart, as Rao wished, and Nightwing grew angry at that over the dedication. He became a destroyer, instead of a builder.”

“What happened to them?”

“The incarnations of both exist in the world, in some form. And every life, they find each other and exist in much the same dilemma, of destroying what each other loves to make each other better, of being madly in love, until one betrays the other.”

“Well, I did like that story for a moment,” Lena shook her head. “But that ending is terrible.”

“There is no ending, Lena.”

“They’re destined to be apart forever though, aren’t they?”

“They’re together.”

“But they can’t be together,” she clarified. “Something always interrupts them.”

“The cycle completes and restarts, just like life, just like everything.”

“It’s kind of sad,” Lena sighed, staring out at the party. “Two beings in love and resigned to a terrible longing and pining, to exist to subvert the other.”

“It’s the balance of the universe.”

“I suppose.”

“You don’t seem convinced.”

For a long, long moment, Lena debated how she felt, but in the end, she knew that she was, just like the story, just like that night, stuck in the middle of a cycle. The fireworks started, filling the sky in giant pictures and shapes and colors, signalling that it was time for the sacrifice.

“Do you believe it?” Lena finally asked after her partner grew very quiet and watched the show above them.

“I’d like to believe that Nightwing still loves Flamebird, despite his shift and anger. I’ve always believed that their love was everything, and how the world was created.”

“I like that better.”

“It’s just a story, Lena. And cycles are just that, they are constant and happen at different speeds, at different times, in different places. There is no pattern there that we could see.”

“Again, not that comforting.”

Kara smiled as both tilted their chins, staring straight up at the sky and the stars and the celebration. Smoke rose up from the other side of the large balcony. Across the skyline, similar situations developed. Drinks were poured and everyone enjoyed the party of the breaking up of a god-like couple.

“They fuel each other. They make each other better. That is the moral of the story,” Kara decided for them. “And it’s one of the best celebrations of the year.”

“I do like this part.”

The fire sparked up and the dancing continued. It was infectious. The story swirled around Lena’s head as she really thought about what it could mean to her.

“Should we join them?” Kara ventured. Only when Lena thought about it did she stand up and hold out her hand.

Lena looked at it for just a second before accepting and being tugged into the foray.

* * *

The new year brought absolutely everything anew. Lena wasn’t accustomed to such change. On Earth there were empty promises and vows, while on Krypton, there was a renewed start to new projects. It was lovely and refreshing and gave her a new kind of excitement for her research in her lab. It took all of a month working non-stop for her to find a good source of power and have plans done and remade back home.

It took all of a month for her to find a book and a flower on her bed one night from the pretty girl on the other side of the house, that she stayed up reading. It took all of a month and a week for her to give up being exhausted and relentless and chase the girl who smiled a lot and knew exactly what book she needed to finish her research.

In her almost eight months since arriving, Lena had taken to avoiding thinking about Kara, meaning that she spent too much time doing just that. She was there to save her planet. Herself, and a team of geniuses were tasked with doing the impossible, and she had stupid thoughts about a pretty alien girl with those dimples and that jawline who knew the secrets of the universe.

“Excuse me,” Lena asked, her heels clacking loudly against the thick floor and expansive room that was the entrance to the old building that housed the Archives.

“Yes?” the old lady croaked in Kryptonian. Lena felt her body sink with dejection at the idea of using her terrible accent.

She looked around the large room and at the woman at the desk who just stared back at her. Large piles of books waited to be brought into the back while a large computer screen did something beside her.

“I, uh. I am seeing to find Kara?” Lena tried, her words coming out in a jumble in the still unfamiliar Kryptonian.

There weren’t many chances for practice, as most were more than accommodating and spoke English better than she could manage. But she had to do better, so she was grateful the old woman wasn’t giving up.

“What?”

“Um, Kara. She tall is the Archivist. Kara Zor-El?”

“What?” the woman suinted an tilted her head again, unable to hear well at all.

“Oh goodness,” Lena sighed to herself. “I’m–”

“Me, you deaf old thing,” Kara interrupted, appearing from a side door and smiling at the newest addition to her office.

There were more words, and Lena picked up on them, though she didn’t register too much of them. She didn’t pick up on much because she was distracted by Kara’s breathless smile. She was always distracted with that, when it appeared. So while she argued, Lena didn’t hear a thing, but rather enjoyed her friend.

“Your Kryptonian is getting better,” Kara lied, motioning for Lena to follow her. The old woman behind the desk still muttered before giving up on the two.

“You’re lying.”

“No…”

“You’re a bad liar.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The hall spread out as far as Lena could see, rows and rows and rows of knowledge and computers, all mingling together in an overwhelming collection. It was everything that Krypton knew, and everything it had ever been. Lena wasn’t sure how Kara could walk through the doors every day and not get overwhelmed to untenable degrees.

“This place is… I can’t believe I haven’t been here yet.”

“You’ve been busy, my father said,” Kara slowed, directing Lena through some shelves towards another section that seemed more open, with books stacked everywhere.

There were others in the Archives. One day, Kara might be able to be the Archivist of her city, but for now she worked with many others, maintaining it and preparing for anyone else. Naturally, it took a lot of upkeep and dedication, but they were not the only ones there. People from across the city, from across all guilds often spent time diving through in order to find their own information. Lena hadn’t considered it. She just imagined Kara locked away in a dungeon of a library every day. The truth was, it was a vibrant little community, and as much as it was a library, it was much, much more.

“They’re implementing some of my new designs for power production to stop fossil fuel use,” she nodded, blushing at the idea of someone talking about her to Kara. “I don’t know how much it will help. I saw the reports of some fighting in the UN.”

“Explain more,” Kara asked eagerly, taking a seat and offering the other end to Lena.

“We won’t disturb people?”

“This is the house of ideas. We can talk about ideas,” she promised.

It was impossible to not give into Kara. She put Lena at ease in record time and with no effort at all. That was something else Lena decided not to think about. She worked hard not to think about it, actually.

“The UN would be similar to your Council of Leaders. Representatives from every nation get together to encourage cooperation and limit power from going to just one country.”

“That is who put together your mission,” Kara nodded thoughtfully. “But now they’re fighting?”

“Different countries fight all the time. It’s not very effective in some ways.”

“Your world is so passionate,” she decided, leaning forward as she wanted to hear more information. “Everything is so extreme and driven by the basest desires. It’s astounding.”

“That’s one way to describe it,” Lena sighed. “I came here because the Earth is failing and we need to help, but I just can’t do enough it seems.”

“My father said that what you both created is one of the most perfect things he’s ever seen. That’s more than enough.”

The kind words came with a kind smile and kind eyes. It came with the feeling of a warm hand on her own as Kara picked up Lena’s and gripped it tightly.

“I didn’t come to complain about my first completed project,” Lena shook her head and felt her cheeks burn and her voice jump in pitch for no reason at all. “I came to see how you were settling in. See if you’ve discovered the secrets of the universe yet.”

“Oh, yes, I finished that up a few days ago,” Kara nodded quite seriously with a smirk as she dropped Lena’s hand slowly, settling back into her chair.

Lena couldn’t help herself. She licked her lips as she listened and Kara pushed around messy curls, flexing a bicep as she did.

“Your father told me that you were working on the Earth collection as it is added to the Archives.”

“He’s quite the gossip, I think we’ve discovered.”

“He is,” Lena laughed and waited.

“I’ve really missed talking with you,” she finally confessed. It came out so quickly and with just a breath, as if it was never supposed to be louder than an under-her-breath whisper.

Kara noticeably grew uncomfortable as soon as she said it, adjusting her glasses and mumbling something else that was lost to the world. No one else could be that person, Lena decided.

“Good. Because I’ve come to offer my earthly expertise.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Lena smiled this time, letting her hand rest on Kara’s thigh. “I need a bit of a distraction and this place seemed about perfect. What kind of work do you do here.”

Kara swallowed and looked at the hand on her body before adjusting her glasses one more time.

“They tell us to learn widely. I just follow what interests me. Lately that’s been you.” Kara felt her eyes go wide with the idea of it. “I mean Earth. Earth things. You know. Where you’re from. Nothing in particular.”

“I am from there, yes,” Lena nodded, hoping to ease Kara out of her worried state. “Why don’t you show me what you’re working on and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay, but only for a second. I’ll distract you for hours if given the chance,” she nodded.

Naturally, it did take hours.

It took hours and neither really noticed. They just ticked by and Lena forgot about her accomplishments and checking on the Earth figures that would be coming through as they worked on switching the grid over. She didn’t really want to think of much else, other than having a good time in the middle of the stacks with Kara.

And then they walked home in the darkness and the bustle of the city after sunset. It took on a different kind of energy, a distinct freshness and youth, though neither spent anytime at all thinking of it. Instead, they walked back toward the tube and then rode back toward the ancestral home of El. The conversation shifted though, from Earth to themselves, and Kara was even more curious about the girl than the planet, though she didn’t know how to say it.

Instead, she just asked lots of questions, and tried to memorize the way Lena laughed or shook her head or sighed, depending on what she was discussing. That was safe and perfect. They were pressed close on the tube home, but had no reason to remain that way as they walked through the grounds. That didn’t stop them from keeping proximity.

“I distracted you too much,” Lena realizes only as they make it to the hall that leads to her wing of the home. “I’m sorry. I was just so curious about your work in the Archives. It’s almost time for me to go back, and I couldn’t without seeing it once.”

“Time to go back,” Kara swallowed thickly and nodded to herself as the words sunk into her consciousness.

“To oversee the implementation of some of our work. I was talking with a few of the others, and the new numbers are really bad. Earth is hobbling along, and I don’t know if we’re too late.”

“You could always just stay,” she realized, offering it without offering it. “I mean. To continue your work from a distance.”

“I’d love that, but unfortunately, duty calls.”

Duty. It triggered within Kara a rhyme she couldn’t quite remember correctly, of a poem or story or myth of Love and Duty, where Love dies, and Duty presses on to find that nothing was more important, not success or triumph. She could feel the rhythm of the lines, but not the words and it bothered her for a moment, both the content and the idea of it.

“You okay, Kara?” Lena smiled softly as she paused, leaning against the wall near her door as Kara’s brow grew heavy.

“Yes, sorry. Just distracted for a second.”

Despite the smile she offered, Kara was still distracted. Until she looked at Lena’s smile, until she met her eyes and slid to her lips once again. For a moment they were both quiet, and there weren’t many noises to help stifle the silence. But it was thick, the air and the time that passed. It all felt hazy and full and for the first time that she could really pinpoint, the words kiss her, flashed through her thoughts. She’d been able to stifle them for so long, but now they were violent and eager things.

As if waiting for it, Lena looked to Kara’s lips and then met her eyes, the what in her cheeks cooking there. It must have been her imagination, but she thought she saw Kara over forward. They were already close, for no real reason at all.

But Kara remembered that she was a host, and that she also had a duty, and it straightened her spine despite the spinning in her head. If she had anything less, she’d lean forward and kiss her right there. But she was Kara Zor-El, and she did not forget.

“I should let you sleep. I’m sure you want to check your numbers tomorrow, and my father will be excited,” Kara nodded, stepping back slightly.

“Thank you, for showing me everything. I hope I was a little bit of help,” Lena offered, unsure of what happened between staring at Kara’s lips and feeling her pull away. She tucked some hair behind her ear nervously.

“Of course. Anytime you would like to see anything,” she nodded. “Goodnight, Lena.”

“Goodnight Kara.”

It took a lot of effort and pulling for Lena to tug herself into her room. She was waiting. She was distracted by Kara’s eyes, and how purposeful and thoughtful they were. She’d never seen such warmth in someone’s face before, and she couldn’t remember wanting to kiss someone so badly as she wanted Kara to kiss her.

But she made it into her room and she closed the door and she took a deep breath, because she couldn’t allow herself to think such things. Lena ran her hands over her face in hopes that it would wipe away any thoughts of Kara.

She was going to leave shortly and she was going to never return. It was that simple. Nothing else mattered, and there was no scientific evidence of anything to describe the feeling she had when she looked at Kara. Chemicals. Chemicals in her brain, she tried to tell her self, explaining away infatuation with clinical diagnosis. Infatuation and overactive chemical sensors in her head. That was a good enough reason to ignore it, Lena decided as she pushed herself away from her door after letting her forehead lean against it in defeat.

Lena made it exactly one step away from the door before there was a knock on it. As soon as she opened it, before she registered that it was Kara, still, and that Kara was walking into her quarters, she felt lips on her lips and hands on her cheeks.

Chemicals, she reminded herself as she clung onto Kara’s top and slide to her neck and into her hair as she moved closer, melting into a kiss that burned her alive. Chemicals were making her feel this desperation to kiss Kara back like she was the answer to every question.

Kara’s lips were warm and soft, and they moved deftly, kissing with all of her might. It wasn’t until she really was out of breath, that Lena accepted Kara pulling away, dazed and confused, as if she’d just snapped out of something. But she didn’t shy away.

“I’m sorry,” Kara swallowed and whispered, still cupping Lena’s cheeks in her hands.

“For what?”

“Surprising you.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to do that for months,” Lena smiled and ached to kiss Kara again. But she was smiling, and she liked watching that happen too much.

“Then I’m sorry for waiting.”

It was her life. It was Kara’s life and happiness and how contagious it all was that made Lena push forward and kiss her back, this time pinning Kara to the wall beside the door. She wanted to feel that pull finally relieved.

Lena wasn’t sure who closed the door, but she was glad that it was. She wasn’t nearly as glad as when Kara lifted her up and carried her toward the bedroom, though. For that, she was the most grateful.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun rose all lavender and lilac over the deep green mountains in the distance. Never once before, had Kara slept in the second tower, on the West end of her property, nor had she a reason to be anywhere other than her room on any other night. But that night was different, and though she didn’t actually sleep, she sat at the end of the bed and felt her head racing with too many thoughts.

The room turned from dark to pale, not completely lit, but rather a hint of what the day was to bring. Kara watched it happen as she debated what to do next. More than anything, she wanted to lay down beside the sleeping form in the bed, and pretend that nothing else mattered. More than anything, Kara wanted to forget that little fluttery feeling in her chest when she looked at Lena, or when she kissed her.

But she couldn’t.

For hours, she practiced everything she’d read in her books from across the entire galaxy on pleasure on Lena, and she got to feel Lena’s methods. Kara still felt the warmth of Lena’s skin against her lips. She couldn’t ignore the feeling of Lena’s curves or the sound of her moans.

She smiled despite the nagging feeling of doing something wrong. Lena was a guest in her house, and she broke a rule of hospitality.

But Lena was smart and funny and quiet and curious and sometimes, when people didn’t quite know how to handle Kara’s oddities, she knew just what to do. It also didn’t help that she was beautiful and an alarmingly good kisser. She was someone who definitely had done her research on the methods of pleasure.

In just a few months, Lena would be months and months of travel away. The matrix would tell Kara who she would marry, and there was no way it would create a match with Lena. She was restricted by duty and honor all everything that Krypton was built upon, to follow the long line of El’s and be a fundamental part of her world’s fabric.

Perhaps it wasn’t love, but just lust, just a silly infatuation. But she looked at Lena asleep and couldn’t believe that. There was no way it was just something easy.

Kara took a final look at the sleeping girl in the bed, and smiled to herself before getting up and making her way back to her own room.

* * *

Every morning, for as long as she’d been living on the El Estate, breakfast had been a scattered affair. Sometimes no one showed up, sometimes one or two, sometimes just being seen in passing.

Lena spent too long laying in bed rehashing everything that happened the night before. Waking up alone was enough to really make her wonder if it happened at all. Had it not been for the bruises on her neck and thigh she would have believed it was all a dream.

Because breakfast was such a solitary activity, Lena never expected to make her way downstairs somewhat later than normal, and still find the entire House of El sitting at the table chatting amongst themselves.

“Lena! I am still waiting to hear about the numbers from Earth,” Zor-El greeted her before she could retrace her steps and disappear.

Immediately, Kara’s eyes were on her own, both with a startled glance, as if they hadn’t fully thought about seeing each other again. They’d seen each other naked though. She knew what Kara tasted like, and she knew how she sounded, and worse yet, she could still picture her eyes looking back up from between her legs.

All nerves, she went to place her hand on the back of a seat and missed, fumbling slightly before laughing nervously and taking her seat.

“We shouldn’t have numbers for another few days, right?”

“Real-time estimates though,” he shook his head and finished eating, the excitement too much for him.

“Let the girl eat before you’re on to idea number seventy,” Alura warned, kissed her husbands temple before patting his shoulder. “I’m sorry I have to leave, but we have to plan for the transfer of information when you head back.”

“Of course. I’m sure we’ll have exciting news tonight,” Lena giggled slightly and composed herself too quickly when she met Kara’s eyes.

“Have a good day, love,” she kissed her daughter’s cheek before smiling at Lena. She pressed her forehead to Kara’s and waved to her husband before making her way into the day.

Jor-El sat at the head of the table and continued to look through his notes, while unbeknownst to him, an awkward volley of glances bounced back and forth across the table. Lena kept the face, the confident, unbothered, often called cold, demeanor she’d cultivated from her time as a wealthy heiress who went to boarding school and took classes in such things. Of course, she wasn’t as successful as she would have hoped, but still she tried.

To her credit, Kara cleared her throat and blushed when she met Lena’s glance, quickly looking away to somewhere else, anywhere else but inevitably back to the girl across the table, always. She didn’t know what to say, and she didn’t know what to do. Unfortunately, her father was locked in his own head with the new initiatives unveiled on earth, and thus no help at all with the task at hand, that being avoiding any direct contact with Lena.

What started as awkward glances changed somehow. Lena earned a smile from Kara as she adjusted her glasses, and she tweaked an eyebrow in response. That led to Kara tilting her head and holding Lena’s eyes.

An entire conversation happened, though no one really said anything at all. But Lena had to win, somehow, and so she challenged Kara, carefully sipping the almost equivalent to tea. She licked her lips and ran her thumb along the corner of her mouth before tugging it quickly into a devilish smirk.

Kara dropped her cutlery and cleared her throat. The noise made her dad jump and look toward her for a problem he could fix.

“I’m sorry. I– um– I just remembered– I have to— uh,” Kara mumbled, speaking quickly and brushing off anything that splashed into her lap. “Leave. I have to leave. Now. To get to the Archive. Yes. That’s it.”

“Are you unwell?” Jor-El asked.

“I’m well. I’m fine. Very fine. Just research,” she continued, slowly backing away. “A lot of research on something.”

“Okay. Have a good time today,” he offered.

Kara said her farewells to both quickly and disappeared at almost a sprint, leaving a very amused and happy to have the upperhand, Lena in her wake.

“Eager student,” the father offered their guest, hoping to find some kind of reason worthy of dismissing Kara’s behavior.

But Lena knew Kara, at least somewhat, and she had nothing to excuse. Instead, she just nodded and tried to follow along with what the scientist was mentioning about the applications of their research. Internally, though, her mind couldn’t escape Kara.

* * *

Nearly an earth year had already passed, and Kara found herself sitting at her desk in the Archives with her hands in her hair and a despondent look on her face. It might have been easier if it was just lust. She could dismiss it, and not have to worry about being awkward near Lena again. She wouldn’t have to focus on the hours they spent hanging out, talking, debating, playfully conversing in a way that made Kara’s chest feel warm, even hours later.

No. It wasn’t lust.

What it was, she was realizing, especially after seeing Lena that morning, was a problem.

The only certain she did know, however, was that all problems had solutions, and she was going to find it or die miserably trying.

So she read. She tugged old books, old tomes, scoured the digital files for any topic on the beginning of the Matrix, the use of matching, and what the guidelines for it all were to her culture.

She knew the stories, in the vaguest sense, in the childish sense that it was just part of life and she never questioned it or what it meant to have a spouse approved by the planet and council and all of that. There was autonomy, of course, but matches were generated with statistical analysis as to success rates, and obviously less optimistics matches were re-evaluated.

But none of that seemed enough, for her. She was too persuaded by the poems and stories of love that she found in the old episodes and books shared from those from earth. Kara was deeply taken with the idea of being deeply taken, and no one could describe the weird place she’d discovered since a certain girl from Earth joined her life.

The Matrix would run numbers, but everything she’d learned said there was no possible number for anything like the feelings. And it absolutely infuriated her.

Kara remained deep in a corner of the Archives for the entire day attempting to discover what the entire universe meant by love and feeling and lust and what in the world she was feeling. She spent much of it avoiding Lena in her head.

Much later into the night, Kara flopped back in her chair and rubbed her sore eyes, an entire day gone to her spent on the impossible search.

She only had a handful of facts that remained true, and none of them were particularly reassuring to the newly disrupted person she’d become. Above all else, she knew that Lena was leaving in approximately six Earth weeks. She knew that her world believed in a complex system of statistical analysis to infer quality of relationships and thus ensure the survival of the species. More importantly, she knew that she didn’t care about any of that in particular. Kara didn’t know what she was feeling, she didn’t know how to figure it out, but she knew that she was doing something.

With an arm full of books, Kara resigned herself to a long walk home to think about it all and her place within her world.

* * *

As excited as Lena was to see her project alive and well back on Earth, she was sad to see it not be enough to sustain the planet. She dreamt of being a god and coming back the hero her family desperately needed, that the planet needed.

The numbers weren’t as promising as they’d hoped. They were preliminary and they were still astounding, but definitely not enough. And that weighed heavily upon her.

For just a brief glimpse of time, she wasn’t worried about Kara, or the awkward breakfast, or the fact that she would have to see her again, or the fact that she wasn’t sure she wanted to or what it all meant. Naturally, she wanted to see Kara. She wanted to keep seeing Kara because she’d felt something pulling her towards her from the first moment they met. Of course, none of that mattered when the numbers came.

The entire day passed with nothing but calculations and projections and toiling away with Jor-El in the labs until Lena was certain she was seeing cross-eyed and needed to step away. She didn’t reach that point on her own though, as it took some gentle coaxing from her mentor to remind her to eat, drink, and go and get some sleep.

Lena was far too stubborn for that though. She took the tablet and her notebook and went back to her home, only to pour over the notes and everything else for hours longer.

By the time the knock at her door came, she was delirious with numbers and her watch said it was well after four in the morning back home, which mean it was well into the night on Krypton. With a slight groan, she rubbed her eyes, yawned, and cracked her bones on the way to the door.

Before she even opened the door, she knew. Somehow, without even thinking of it, Lena understood who would be waiting on the other side. That was why she stopped to catch herself in the mirror.

“Hello,” Kara smiled nervously, letting out a breath as if she’d just run the entire way there, as if she’d been holding it all day. Her shoulders sunk a little with it.

“Do you only talk to me in the middle of the night now?” Lexa asked, leaning against the door that she held open.

“I wanted to apologize for this morning, and for leaving, and for just… being weird,” she explained, eyes earnest and sorry.

To her credit, Lena blamed the hour. She blamed the day and her tired eyes. She blamed everything except the way that Kara made her feel, and she cracked the door a little wider to let the heir to the house of El inside.

“I didn’t know what to say, this morning,” Kara started as soon as the door closed, wringing her hands before pushing up her glasses and taking a breath. “I blanked, and got in my head about it without talking to you, which is unfair.”

“I didn’t help much,” Lena offered weakly. “I won’t take offense if you regret–”

“Oh, no, no no no, no. Not at all. Not that,” she shook her head. “I don’t regret it. I feel the opposite of regret. I feel very happy about it.”

“You have the worst way of showing it.”

“That is why I’m here to apologize. It’s just not that simple for us, for me.”

“Kara, we slept together. It’s not the end of the world. I feel awkward too, but we have–”

“It was more than just— than– It wasn’t just copulation for me. It was not just anything like that.”

“Copulation?” Lena asked, trying not to smile or be so amused by the apparent difficult time the Kryptonian was having in formulating her words.

Frustrated with how it was going, Kara shook her head and set her jaw before giving Lena a look that begged for some kind of assistance in moving forward.

“I feel something for you,” Kara finally confessed, the most honest, easiest thing that she could find within herself. “I don’t know what it means, and I don’t know how you feel, but I have felt it for a long time.”

“You don’t know how I feel?”

“I don’t… I don’t think so. I don’t want to be wrong.”

“Kara, I don’t just do that, like last night. I certainly don’t spend five hours naked with a girl and then not have a reason for it.”

Surprised by the answer, because for the first time, Kara realized she’d overthought everything to a comical degree, and yet never really considered or found confidence in Lena’s affection. But Lena stood strong and crossed her arms and watched her think about it all.

They stood at the antechamber and orbited around, afraid of saying or doing or thinking about anything else. Once more, Kara adjusted her glasses.

“I’m sorry I was weird and awkward,” Kara finally offered again.

“I know you,” Lena smiled. “I knew you would, but I was hoping I’d catch you in the morning to put your mind at ease. To be fair, I felt a little awkward too, because you left.

“We aren’t like you. We do things differently.”

“I understand,” she nodded.

“I’m glad one of us does, because I spent all day trying to figure it all out, and I came up with nothing.”

The honesty made Lena chuckle slightly as she chanced a look through her lashes at the girl in her room who looked genuinely exhausted at the thought of hours of research. It was almost endearing and insanely adorable to see someone so worried, and once again, she was amazed at how Kara’s brain worked.

“I had fun last night. I like you, Kara. I’ve tried not to, but I do anyway.”

“I don’t know what comes next.”

“Me neither.”

Very confused and not sure what anything meant; still completely lagged from their collective days and the past twenty-four hours of their lives, Kara and Lena stood there and debated what could come next. Logistically, neither knew, and thus the stalemate was born.

* * *

The stalemate lasted about thirty seconds before Lena kissed Kara, returning the favor of the night before. It was not a mad rush, nor was it this eager need. Instead, it was sweet and slow and done with a smile, this mix of nerves and newness and familiarity.

Kara remained still for a moment before melting into Lena’s hands, holding onto her hips and ribs and then cradling her neck and cheeks. She kissed her back softly at first and then all at once, forgetting the research and the conundrum of the matrix and its statistics in favor of the earthly concept of love and adoration and lust and all of it.

This time, it was Lena that started it, that pushed it beyond a kiss, finding the slip of Kara’s clothes and made them fall to a puddle on her floor. It was Lena that kissed her neck first and made it impossible to stand on her own.

Lena was even more confused with Kara’s way of explaining things, of why she was so worried, but she didn’t care about logistics. She didn’t have to, not when she was kissing Kara.

That night, after they found the bed, after smiling and being close, being naked and close to each other with some sheets somewhere between them, whispering about nothing in particular, when they fell asleep finally, purely exhausted from the day, Kara didn’t even allow herself to debate leaving. Instead, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and fell asleep with a small smile on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

The estate of the House of El sat on its ancestral plot to the west of Argo City. It was a glass and brick type that was unlike anything remotely normal to those from Earth. Sparse and large, it encompassed a kind of simple grander, with its blue and gold symbols throughout, and the open doors so that the inside mingled with the outside almost interchangeably.

Throughout the land between the House of El and the city, hundreds of other properties existed in much the same way, though spread out and in a smaller fashion. The House of El had the luxury of time on its side, growing at a pace and era much longer than the rest of its distant neighbors. Often, Lena forgot that she was near the city at all. Her host family's house was its own ecosystem.

Lena’s wing was a microcosm of a microcosm, entirely self-sustaining and isolated from the bigger picture. It was a quiet refuge from the larger world. In the main room, Lena had stacks of books and papers, projects of her tinkering, ideas and words, scattered in somewhat neat, somewhat decipherable columns.

The bedroom was empty, nearly the opposite of the busy living room. All it contained was a bed, and that was all it needed. From time to time, a tablet or notebook would join her, but for the most part, Lena kept it as a refuge from thought. Dark greys and shades of white left the monochromatic room a relaxing paradise from all of the screens and colors of the new planet.

And then Kara existed, and brought in new sunshine and hues, all her own.

“Mmm, go back to sleep,” the Kryptonian whispered, furrowing, without even opening her eyes to confirm that Lena was actually awake.

The girl from earth just smiled and kissed bare shoulders. She shifted, turning over in Kara’s arms, and inhaling the smell. She couldn’t place it as anything she knew other than sunshine on an August day back home. The smell of heat and of spice that was distinctly incomparable. But it was purely Kara.

“You stayed.”

“Wasn’t I supposed to?”

This little feeling in Lena’s chest warmed itself. Like a kernel of popcorn, it burst with the surge and filled her body, radiating this thing she only just realized to be happiness. Cloaked in a certain beautiful woman and oddly sore and still very sticky from their activities just a few hours before, Lena closed her eyes and savored it.

Instead of answering, she kissed under Kara’s chin and earned a smile and tightening arms. Stuck so close together, they were almost atoms in the universe, in the microcosm. They sandwiched themselves together until they shared electrons.

“Last night you said you spent yesterday researching?” Lena whispered, resting her forehead against Kara’s neck.

“Love.”

Lena furrowed for a second and felt Kara’s nose migrate to her hair, she felt her inhale, and she felt her sigh.

“You were researching… love?”

“I wasn’t sure what it was. We have different definitions for these things.”

“You have definitions for love?” Lena wondered aloud, utterly confused despite Kara matter-of-fact answers.

“We don’t have it here, at least not the passionate kind,” she explained, adjusting and burrowing with a yawn, much disinterested in discussing her findings and instead eager to eek out a few more hours of peace and warmth.

“But your parents--”

“Why are you awake right now?” Kara complained. “Sleep.”

“What did you research?”

With a mighty sigh, Kara complained and grumbled, knowing full well that she was up for the day now. There was no way Lena Luthor was going to let her sleep, and there was no way she was going to escape being absolutely in love with it.

“We have a system here,” Kara finally began, knowing full well that she would do anything Lena asked. “The Matrix decides if matches are acceptable. It’s a complex system of accumulated knowledge and codes that forecasts and uses probability to--”

“You have a formula for love and affection?”

“I’m still very confused about all of it.”

“You did research.”

Lena murmured it with a little smile, though she was still confused about what exactly the research brought. Instead, she was just amazed that someone did research about a feeling she inspired within them.

So Lena kissed Kara’s neck and slid her hand up her spine, toying with the muscle there, running her nails along the skin. Lena wasn’t ready to get out of bed. It was still early, and they were just immovable objects who had nothing much but a feeling.

“One poet said that romance and love are why you stay alive, as humans,” Kara explained. “Another says he does not know how or when or where, but because he knows no other way. Love consists of two solitudes that meet, protect, and greet each other. Love is the answer to everything and the only reason to do anything. It is a serious mental disease.”

“You did a lot of research,” Lena nodded. “But none of it matters.”

“No?”

With a graceful push of her hips and slide of leg, Lena ended up straddling Kara. The sheets pooled at where they met, leaving them topless and messy from lack of sleep and an abundance of sex. Lena pushed her hair away from her face and let hands move to her hips where they held her in place. She ran her hand up Kara’s chest and appreciated the view with a mischievous smile and plenty of dawn left before they day had to begin.

“I don’t know a thing about love,” Lena nodded, finally dragging her eyes up Kara’s body to her neck, to her jaw, to her lips to her eyes. “You just feel it. It’s the simplest thing in the universe.”

Contemplative, brown eyes grew deep and heavy, pondering the words. The pause didn’t stop Lena from rubbing her palm over Kara’s breastbone. She hoped to rub a spot there that would learn to feel what she felt.

“You could have saved me a very long day in the Archives,” Kara grinned finally. 

“We’re doing something. I don't know what. But it’s important. And it’s good. Please don’t overthink it.”

“No more thinking at all,” she decided, sitting up and looking at Lena’s lips. “I say I move to the application of all the research.”

“And what does that mean?”

“I want to know what it means to do to you what spring does to cherry trees.”

“Well, if it’s for great interplanetary understanding,” Lena shrugged, wrapping her arms around Kara’s shoulders and neck, tugging her closer as lips found her neck, under her jaw, bit her ear. “I’m all yours.”

* * *

In the large lab near the top of the Scientist Guild’s tower, a lot of white coats excitedly scurried about the large screens and computers. Outside, the heavy heat hung in the air, and sizzled the horizon to nothing, blurring everything together. No one took notice of the weather or the events outside of the screens. The entire world was irrelevant when all of that brainpower set its mind to a particular subject.

Kara said it was the warm season. That when it got to be hottest, it would be time for Lena to leave, and so, without knowing what that meant, without knowing what heat would be too much, Lena tried not to pay attention to the weather or the countdown to her departure, but rather contributed her brain to the melding of minds tasked with saving her planet.

Tucked amidst the crowd, Lena hid herself in a corner and smiled at the promising numbers coming through from the first couple of days of statistics. She had a lot of work to do, and time was running out.

“The generators are working well enough,” Lionel Luthor informed his daughter through the computer. “The tech is… it’s… magnificent.”

“How are the disposal teams doing with the nuclear sites? And the switch in agriculture? What about the--”

“Slow down, Lena. I can’t answer everything at once.”

Flushing with her father’s words, the tips of her ears burned as she took a deep breath and watched him read through a few papers. The chat box popped up a second later as he asked about gathering information for other things, namely the Kryptonite that he believed could power advanced weaponry.

Lena looked around and began typing that she wasn’t sure about it and hadn’t learned anything. But her father was keen, was observant, and he saw the flicker of hesitation and worry in his daughter's eyes. It was weakness and he did his best to pluck it out, but it seemed to grow like weeds in her. No one else would have seen it.

“I’m very proud of you, Lena,” her father said. “I’m eager for you to be home with us again.”

The reality sank in once again, and Lena tensed. Or she could stay. She wanted to say that, she wanted to never have to leave, and not just because of Kara. Here, Lena fit in. She belonged in a way that she hadn’t before, and that was something she never knew she missed or didn’t even have until she got it. Krypton made sense to her.

All she could do was smile and nod.

* * *

The home at the edge of town was always safe and never besmirched. The noble house of El existed wit a perfect pedigree and grooming known only to few others on the planet. Their line was ancestral, and some even said came from the very gods themselves, though few would acknowledge or even admit to believing such things.

Instead, the home existed as a symbol of stability and aspiration. All else wanted to uphold the same vigorous morals and genuine kindness that the House of El perfected and exuded into the world.

And Kara was convinced that she was the downfall of the great lineage.

With a heavy sigh, she stood at the entrance to her home as she had innumerable times before in her life, though this time, instead of heading right inside, she paused and remembered the weight of it all. Unwieldy as it was, she furrowed and tried to adjust her shoulders under the weight.

Much of her childhood had been spent perfecting the art of chivalry in the Kryptonian sense. Polite discourse and diligent study were stressed highly among other important traits that the noble house was meant to exemplify. Kara could recite the ancient rules of hosts better than any other. She could sing the sacred songs, she could recall in an instant, the oaths of the people and what they meant.

And so, when she disrupted the Rite of Guest in her own house, in the sacred walls of her home, well, Kara was damn near inconsolable. It didn’t stop her. But still, inconsolable she remained. The uncontrollable part was because of Lena Luthor. The rest was all her own.

With a heavy sigh again, Kara let herself inside once again, turning the entire situation over and over and over again, just as she’d done for the past two days. It was the night that kept her confused, because when she was near Lena, she was certain, and she was happy in a way she never knew existed. When they were apart, the crushing memory of who she was and what it all meant made her brain hurt.

“Kara, darling,” her mother greeted in their native tongue, joyed to see her daughter out of the Archives. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I was, um, I needed-- how are you?” she finally decided.

“I’m well, I’m tired, but well. Just reviewing these reports your father and Lena put together about the results. There are somethings that just….” she trailed off and distracted herself while looking at the papers before shaking it away and meeting her daughter’s eyes again. “Should I have some dinner brought up soon? I didn’t expect you home.”

“No, no, I’m not-- yes, wait. Yes, I’m starving.”

Confused by herself and the words, Kara shook her head and took a deep breath before joining her mother at the large table. All was quiet.

“Is there something--”

“I may have started Choosing. I maybe started it with Lena.”

Kara’s words rushed out as soon as her mother started talking. They weren’t rushed, they weren’t forceful or elevated, and more importantly, they weren’t said with guilt. Instead, Kara just sternly stated facts, and she held her breath in her chest after she finished.

“Choosing?” her mother repeated and furrowed before it clicked. “Choo-- With-- Kara? I thought-- Did she-- Choosing?”

Normally the most articulate person in the room, the lack of coherence was oddly startling to her daughter, but still, she waited and nodded.

“I haven’t spoken with her about our customs, and I’m not sure it’s the same, but there is something, and it is more than friends or colleagues.”

“She’s a guest in our home.”

“I’m aware. I looked at all of the old tomes I could find to see what the rules were, and I got similar wording, but a consistent theme.”

“She’s from Earth.”

“You stressed our relations with the--”

“Kara,” Her mother warned, interrupting wherever that thought or justification was heading. Her daughter knew enough to look guilty. When she looked away her mother studied her face.

Alura knew she’d have to be blind not to see this connection between the two of them. It was a great source of pride for her, that her daughter was capable of forging such strong friendships with people so different from themselves. But to Choose, to think of… with someone not of their planet. It wasn’t possible, she assumed.

“I feel very attached to her. There’s this… this… this pull,” she explained, her hand pressing against her chest as she did. “I think she’s important.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure.”

The two sat at the table as food was brought up and placed in front of them. They lost their appetite though. Kara sighed and shook her head.

“I’m sorry I broke the rules,” she muttered. “But she invited me to her room. I have been researching the process of Choosing and how it all works. There’s no reason it can’t be her.”

“She’s not Kryptonian,” her mother reminded her. “Are you going to have her go to the Matrix?”

“I haven’t spoken to her about our way.”

“This is a mess.”

“Yes.”

“The delegation from Earth leaves soon,” Alura sighed as she began to eat. “If this is what you Choose, you should figure it out soon.”

“I’ll let you know.”

Kara didn’t feel any better. Instead, the worry in her chest still lingered, though her shoulders were a little lighter. The responsibility just shifted though. She earned a small smile from her mother, and took it as a victory.

“You should talk to Lena about the Matrix, and our customs,” her mother finally said before sipping her wine.

“I will.”

There was a second of quiet.

“Are you sure?”

Kara didn’t hesitate at all.

“I am.”


End file.
